1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements in communication systems and services. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques for ensuring payment of royalties for copyrighted data delivered over a communication network.
2. Description of Prior Art
The recent expansion of wide area computer communication networks, such as the Internet, as well as the planned development of the so-called information superhighway, promise ready availability of an infinite array of data to users around the world. The data available over the network may include, for example, text, audio, video and other animation, still images and virtual reality sensations. A serious problem in implementing the information superhighway or other wide area communication network is the fundamental conflict between ready access to network data, and the need for the data creators to receive appropriate royalties. Failure to provide adequate royalties for creators may limit the amount and quality of available data. On the other hand, a strict requirement of royalty payments prior to data delivery would place an excessive burden on users, particularly those involved in education and research, and limit the effectiveness of the network as a widely-used communication medium.
A prior art technique presently used to ensure royalty payments for data transferred by computer network involves encrypting the data prior to transfer. After a user has paid an appropriate royalty fee, the user receives a decryption key which allows the encrypted data to be converted to a usable form. Unfortunately, encryption often converts the data to a completely unrecognizable form, such that users unfamiliar with the data content will be unable to determine its usefulness without first paying the royalty. Users are placed at a significant disadvantage in conducting research, which often involves examining large amounts of unknown data. For example, a high school or college student using the network to research paintings from a particular period or artist will likely want to browse through a large number of still images, on the order of 100 or more. If a database provider charged the student to view each and every image, the cost would unduly limit the scope of the research.
Similar problems are encountered by users interested in copyrighted music or lyrics, newspaper and magazine articles, published court decisions, U.S. and foreign patents, articles in scientific and technical journals, and a wide variety of other data. Although these types of data are currently available in a number of different databases which users may access over a network, prior art techniques generally do not allow users to access any useful portion of the data without first agreeing to pay for the delivered data. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,213 discloses a prior art system which allows users of an encrypted CD-ROM database to browse through the database on a browsing workstation containing proprietary computer and display components. However, the user typically must perform the browsing at the proprietary workstation, rather than over a network using a standard personal computer, and generally must pay a fee to gain access to data even for browsing. In addition, the user browses a full quality version of the data even though a lesser quality version may be sufficient to determine suitability of the data. This system is thus inefficient and not conducive to widespread data access over a network.
The prior art data delivery systems also fail to recognize that a liberal access policy can be in the best interests of information creators. If people are not exposed to high quality information, people will not come to depend on it and seek it out. Providing widespread access to information can thus be considered a form of advertising or investment for creators. As noted above, however, the access should be provided in a way which enables the creators to recover the royalties they deserve. Prior art network data delivery techniques have failed to resolve this conflict satisfactorily and are generally incompatible with the liberal and widespread access goals of the much-publicized information superhighway.
As is apparent from the above, a need exists for a method and system which ensure payment of royalties for high quality data delivered over a communication network, without unduly restricting widespread access to the data for browsing, education and other purposes.
The present invention provides a method and system for ensuring payment of royalties for data delivered over a communication network. The present invention resolves the conflict between free access and payment of royalties by providing liberal access to partially-degraded data suitable for browsing or research, and charging users a royalty to receive a higher quality version of the data suitable for purposes such as entertainment.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method of delivering data to a user terminal over a communication network is provided. The exemplary method includes the steps of providing a partially-degraded version of the data over the network, without payment of a royalty fee, to a customer at the user terminal; and providing a higher quality version of the data to the customer over the network if the customer is entitled to receive the higher quality version. The determination as to whether the customer is so entitled may be made by, for example, determining if a royalty fee payment has been received. The partially-degraded version of the data is substantially recognizable when displayed, printed, played, run or otherwise utilized at the user terminal, and may be generated by, for example, deleting or encrypting a portion of the undegraded data. The higher quality version may be provided by transmitting the complete higher quality version, or transmitting remaining data such as the deleted portion or a decryption key, to the user terminal.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a data delivery method is provided which includes the steps of receiving a request for the data from a customer at one of the user terminals; retrieving the requested data from the information database; partially degrading the data such that after the partial degradation the data remains substantially recognizable when utilized by the customer; transmitting the partially-degraded data to the customer over the communication network; determining whether the customer is entitled to receive a higher quality version of the data; and providing the higher quality version to the customer if the customer is entitled to receive it.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a system for delivering data over a network is provided. The system includes a provider database containing the data; and a digital data processor connected to the provider database, for processing a request for the data from a customer at the user terminal, such that a partially-degraded version of the data is provided to the customer over the network, without payment of a royalty fee, and a higher quality version of the data is provided to the customer over the network, for example, upon payment of the royalty fee. Again, the partially-degraded version, when displayed or otherwise utilized at the user terminal, is substantially recognizable to the customer and suitable for limited usage.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, a customer may be provided with an option of selecting a version of the desired data at one of a number of different data quality levels, and the amount of royalty payment required to receive a given version may vary depending on the quality level selected. In this manner, users need not pay for a higher quality version of the data than necessary for a given application.
The present invention ensures payment of royalties for data received over a communication network in part because delivered data generally remains partially-degraded until an appropriate royalty is paid. At the same time, network users are provided with substantially free access to a wide array of data which is readily recognizable and usable for limited purposes such as research. The users can therefore browse through a variety of available data to decide which data to purchase in a higher quality or undegraded form.